naufragus wrote:LOL.......

They are SINGING! Its what you do in the creature stage to befriend another species

It looks like they're singing to you and bowing down, worshiping your almighty and mysterious ship or the circle itself (not sure which). I've only seen this happen to civilized worlds, though, never in tribal ones. For tribal ones I've only ever seen them cower in fear.

They are singing but only to the circle. If my ship OR hologram approaches, they panic. Even in civ phase.

If you find a planet that has a bunch of tribes, pick a tribe, draw the crop circle, then drop a monolith in the middle of it. Now go away before they all panic, and that tribe will develop into a space age race... eventually.

edit: not sure if it's the monolith, or the circle, or the combination of the two, but that's what I do and it seems to work.

StevenMC wrote:If you find a planet that has a bunch of tribes, pick a tribe, draw the crop circle, then drop a monolith in the middle of it. Now go away before they all panic, and that tribe will develop into a space age race... eventually.

edit: not sure if it's the monolith, or the circle, or the combination of the two, but that's what I do and it seems to work.

What you're describing is the impact of the monolith by itself... they'll become space-faring if you drop a monolith (and you'll receive a +50 relations boost for "uplifting them").

I too have failed to get the crop circles to work yet (haven't seen any singing, etc. But- I also haven't had a game yet where I've bought the cloak, so I'd like to try being cloaked and drop a circle for them to enjoy.

It still seems that as it stands, the crop circles don't do "enough"...what I'd like to see them do is give you an option of what type of civilization you want the creatures to grow into... not as a guarantee, but you could choose to nudge the race into a military path, or religious, etc. Then when you used the monolith to uplift them, you might have tailored an ally of the type you desire.

lol, thanks for the heads up, not I don't have to use the crop circle thing, just the monolith!

Ok, here's a theory. What happens to a city when all the inhabitants go away? I ask because I dropped a crop circle and then floated above it and zapped anyone that panicked with the mind eraser thingy. In a few minutes, there was a horde of inhabitants standing in the middle of the circle.... I couldn't help but think what would happen if I dropped a bomb? curious if anyone has tried it... is the city just open for the taking after that?

Just a bit of extra-friendlyness when they get to space... But have not tried cloaked/night/holo use of it...

I can never get the crop circles, or triangles, or random squiggly things to work. All the people do is get scared and shoot at me. It sure draws them out, and from then I just blow them all up. Or if I like how they look (yes, I judge on how people look...) I uplift them, giving me an ally straight from when they evolve to space. But usually for me, their ships suck, they always have some sort of problem, and they don't do anything to help you. So to me, It's a waste of time and a monolith.

commanderkeen320 wrote:Does anyone know what crop circles do? It says they're for interacting with tribal and civilization stage creatures, but they don't really seem to do anything.

They convince the locals to gather in one spot, so I can drop a bomb on them.

What do crop circles do in reality?

They make a bunch of people gather together, create a "we believe in sentient life besides us" club, distribute fliers to people about their beliefs, get labeled as geeks(no offense, but you can't off the truth), and bombard the world with wild conspiracy theories about how big superpowers have connections with outer beings.

It also spawns nocturnal hippes with too much time in their hands, and find joy in creating patterns in someone else's wheat field.

Its merely an entertaining tool for aliens really. It's their Saturday morning cartoon.

I used it to lure sick critters to one spot.

ZAP. oopsie.

its does what they do in real life
1 cause panic at the thought of an invasion
2 cause a group of people to worship the UFO
3 do nothing...

It gathers people for you to "interact" with them effortlessly. Anyone want some happy juice? Or maybe a nice laser swath across hundreds of hapless singing citizens... Or just a convenient place for you to erase minds. Or abduct the entire colony and incinerate them during cleaner missions. It also inspires music.

They don't actually improve your relationship with the empire, you can see your relationship by hovering over their picture while you're around their planets, crop circles do nothing to it. The change you're noticing is probably because certain empires are naturally friendlier than others(traders, diplomats, etc.)

Note: You can only check the relationship status and what all contributes to it with space faring empires. Putting a monolith on the planet gives "You uplifted us: +50" Otherwise there doesn't seem to be any effect for having crop circles.

Crop circles come up very early in the stage, so I wouldnt expect them to have much of an impact.
I've only used them a few times, but seems next to useless compaired to the other tools you get later in the game.

ok when you use them they add a friendy tool thing it can go to +50 it helps when you give them money and happy ray they will like you very fast lol

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/4480.page

Read this Haha it may help. The Crop Circles make it so they will become your friend almost automaticly when they advance, other wise they just advance and are like a normal empire.